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Gnome Mines
The Gnome Mines are accessed by activating and riding an appropriate elevator, which can be found by moving through a randomly generated opening on the left side of any dungeon floor. The switch on the left of the elevator will bring the lift down a level. The switch on the right will bring it up a level. At the very bottom of the mines, next to the locked wine cellar, there is a switch that will call the elevator to your location. If you find yourself out of reach of the elevator, go the the bottom of the mines and pull the switch. Gnomes The mines are populated by many monsters, but the most prominent of those creatures is the gnomes themselves. A fair number of the gnomes travel on foot and are relatively harmless, but many of them ride in specialized gnomish walkers, of which there are multiple variations. Gnome King Deep within the mines the Gnome King can be found sitting on his throne protected by his troll servants, Pain and Disease. An encounter with him may prove exceptionally rewarding, if the player can survive it. The Disease troll guard will cast sickness at the player, but you can position yourself so that it will hit the Gnome King or Pain instead. Gnomish Jewellery Store Near the Gnome King is a Jewellery Store that buys and sells rings, amulets, black spectacles, scales, and gems. He will also identify such items for a fee. While he is in his shop, killing the jeweller will yield no loot, and luring him outside by inflicting the single point of damage he is capable of taking will not make him carry his shop inventory with him. Gnome Doors Gnome doors can be found in the Gnomish Mines. These doors do not work like creature doors in the main dungeon, and give a message about twisty passages when investigated. The issue needs further testing, but it appears that gnomes only exit the doors when a Gnome Walker (or variant) is near the door, regardless of whether the Walker is occupied. (Needs testing). There seems to be no limit on how many gnomes will exit the door, so long as a Walker is near. However, standing in front of the door while an empty Walker is near does not seem to result in more gnomes. Perhaps the character needs to be a certain distance away from the door, or not between the Walker and the door. One way to get many gnomes out is to allow a gnome riding a Gnome Walker (not digger or cutter) to empty his wand. After that, he will just ride back and forth on the floor, but cannot attack you. As he walks by gnome doors, additional gnomes will come out, often bearing wands. Strategy Gnome walkers are the most dangerous enemies in the mines. The walker itself will reflect magic and may also have devastating melee attacks. The gnome pilots are often equipped with a Wand of Striking or Wand of Magic Missile, and they cannot normally be reached by melee attacks unless the walker is destroyed. The best way to deal with these enemies is to attack them from afar with thrown weapons, spells or a previously acquired wand. 1 or 2 crude daggers will reliably kill a gnome and because of the throwing arc it is easy to hit them without striking the walker. Strong melee characters such as the Barbarian can also attempt to get up close and attack with the "up" key like against flying enemies. *Wand of Striking can deal enough damage to destroy the walkers outright if you start shooting from a distance. *Wand of Magic Missile can be aimed at ceilings to hit the gnome pilot on the walker after a bounce. If the walker happens to be facing away from the player, a properly aimed magic missile can even hit the gnome pilot twice by bouncing it off the walker. *Lightning can hit the walker and jump to the pilot. *Teleport Self can be used to teleport the walker out from under the gnome. You can then kill the gnome easily and kill an empty walker at your leisure when you find it. *Pets can attack the pilot while it's riding the walker. The unmanned walker is then easy to destroy. *A reflective amulet or shield will reflect the pilot's magic missile attack (but not striking attacks, or attacks by weapons on the walker itself). Once the gnome pilot is slain, the walker will be disabled and may be dispatched at your leisure with melee attacks. Tips *'Warning': While exploring the mines you may come upon the mine cart dungeon feature which can kill a character instantly if not approached with the right timing. Don't let your character be in front of the mine cart when it is passing! You cannot levitate above the mine cart as the tunnel roof is too low. Levitating players also cannot float fast enough to flee an approaching cart, which makes levitating doubly dangerous for you. However, the gnome driving the cart can easily be dispatched by striking at him while he turns into the tunnel near the skull and bones sign. This will slow the train down considerably and make it easy for even a burdened character to outrun it. *'Warning': While the game makes it clear the player has entered an anti-magic field when you enter the Gnome King's throne room, it does not make any mention of the fact that you are also unable to teleport within the deepest levels of the mines as well. Be sure that you have another escape plan that does not include teleporting away while clearing out the lowest levels of the mines! (note: Teleportation is disabled here to prevent players from teleporting directly in to the Wine Cellar) *Pickaxes are often found in the mines. Wielding one will allow a character to dig the boulders at the left end of some levels of the mines. Simply wield the pickaxe and interact with the boulders by pressing F (default) or clicking on the boulder. When dug each boulder will reveal gems which can include portal stones, firestones, etc. *If you wish to practice your combat ability, an empty walker is a perfect combat dummy that will let you hit it, without hitting you back. They also have a substantial amount of HP. *If you wait in front of a closed door, the gnomes on the other side it will often bunch up behind it and immediately zap the half-open door with several wands when you open it, resulting in a convenient mass murder-suicide. Trivia * The mechanism that activates the elevator allowing descent into the gnome mines is a valve which activates a steam engine and a green light. If those clues weren't enough, there is writing on the rightmost fourth wall requesting that the player vote for Wazhack on Steam's Greenlight page. * The text that appears when you investigate an "empty" Gnome Door, " All you see a maze of twisty little passages, all alike." is a reference to the game Colossal Cave Adventure, one of the first computer adventure games. Colossal Cave Adventure was also one of the inspirations for Rogue, which in turn inspired the entire rogue-like subgenre Category:Dungeon Feature